[1215-1216 A.D.]

Towards the middle of October Alexander crossed the borders; and while his army was occupied with an ineffectual investment of Norham, he received the homage of the barons of Northumberland at Felton, where Eustace de Vesci, by the presentation of a white wand, formally made over the three northern counties to his royal kinsman. John was now fast approaching Scotland, burning to vent his wrath upon Alexander for adhering to the cause of the revolted nobles. The Yorkshire barons laid waste their lands, and tendered their allegiance to Alexander on the very day on which John burned the town of Werk. Morpeth,

Mitford, and Alnwick had already been destroyed; Berwick and Roxburgh were carried by storm, Haddington and Dunbar soon sharing the same fate.

His own ravages, however, and the policy of the Yorkshire barons, prevented John from penetrating further than Haddington, for he was soon obliged to retire from a district in which his troops would have perished before long for want of subsistence.

The month of February found the Scottish army engaged in retaliating upon Cumberland the ravages inflicted upon the fertile plains of the Lothians; a body of lawless irregulars, imitating the conduct of the foreign mercenaries at the abbey of Coldingham, by perpetrating a similar outrage at Holmcultram. After the arrival of Louis of France, Alexander, who had returned to Scotland, again crossed the frontier, possessed himself of Carlisle, a town always inclined towards the Scottish connection, and uniting his forces with the retainers of the northern barons, traversed the whole length of England to Dover, to tender his homage to the French prince as suzerain of his fiefs in England. During the march towards Dover the lands of the confederates were carefully protected from harm, the vengeance of the allies being reserved especially for the partisans of John, whose territories were harried without mercy whilst reconnoitring Bernard Castle. As the confederates passed Lincoln they carried the town by storm, putting the garrison of the castle to ransom; and on reaching London a close alliance was concluded between the French and Scottish princes and the barons, all pledging themselves, at a conference held in the capital, never to conclude a peace with their mutual foe which should not embrace all and each of the contracting parties.

In the confusion ensuing upon John's death, which occurred shortly afterwards, the followers of Alexander and the northern barons are said to have plundered the camp of the very army with which the deceased king had intended to intercept their return. After a protracted investment of the castle of Carlisle, the garrison surrendered on promise of their lives; and the fort at Tweedmouth, of which John seems to have ordered the reconstruction after the capture of Berwick, was destroyed by the Scots about the same time.

[1217-1249 A.D.] In the following May Alexander, again entering England, commenced the investment of Mitford Castle; but upon learning the result of the disastrous battle of Lincoln, raising the siege, he retired into Scotland without engaging in further hostilities. He now received intelligence of the peace between Henry and Louis, a clause in their treaty extending its provisions to the Scottish king, on condition of returning all conquests made during the late war; and as his acquisitions were limited to the town and castle of Carlisle a reconciliation between the young kings was effected without difficulty, and a peace was speedily arranged.

Accordingly, in the beginning of December, 1217, Alexander was released at Berwick from the excommunication which he had incurred through supporting the cause of English liberty and the barons, and before the close of the same month he received investiture at Northampton of the Honour of Huntingdon and his other English fiefs and dignitaries, performing homage in the usual manner. His kingdom, however, still continued under the interdict, and though their king appears to have encountered little difficulty in appeasing the anger of the Church, the Scottish people were not finally absolved from the consequences of their sovereign's policy until they had largely contributed to the emolument of the legate Gualo."

In 1222 the king was engaged in subduing a rebellion in Argyll; and in the same year was obliged to visit Caithness, where the bishop had been burned in his house by the connivance of the earl of the same county. In 1228 it was the district of Moray which was discontented and disturbed by the achievements of one Gillescop, who was put down and executed by the efforts of the earl of Buchan, justiciary of Scotland. In 1231 Caithness witnessed a second tragedy similar to that of 1228, only the parts of the performers were altered. It was now the bishop or his retainers who murdered the earl of Caithness and burned his castle. This called for and received fresh chastisement.

In 1233 new tumults arose among the Celtic inhabitants of Scotland. Alan, lord of Galloway, died, leaving three daughters. The king was desirous of dividing the region amongst them as heirs portioners. The inhabitants. withstood, in arms, the partition of their country, being resolved it should. continue in the form of a single fief. The purpose of the king was to break the strength of this great principality, and create three chiefs who might be naturally expected to be more dependent on the crown than a single overgrown vassal had proved to be. Alexander led an army against the insurgents, defeated them, and effected the proposed division of the province. It is to be carefully noted, that all these wars with his insurgent Celtic subjects, though maintained by the king in defence of the administration of justice and authority, tended not the less to alienate the districts in which they took place from the royal power and authority; and the temporary submission of their chiefs was always made with reluctance, and seldom with sincerity.

Alexander II died in 1249, in the remote island of Kerrera, in the Hebrides, while engaged in an expedition for compelling the island chiefs to transfer to the Scottish king an homage which some of them had paid to Norway as lord paramount of the isles. Alexander II left no children by his first wife, the Princess Joan. His second was Marie de Coucy, a daughter of that proud house who on their banners affected a motto disclaiming the rank of king.' By her he had Alexander III, who, at his father's death, was a child of eight years old.d

Je suis ni roi, ni prince aussi—

Je suis le seigneur de Coucy.

[1249 A.D.]

Alexander died in the zenith of a prosperous career, and in the full vigour of manhood, for he had not yet completed his fifty-first year. He was a prince possessing many high and noble qualities. By dividing the vast possessions of the earls of Caithness, by confirming and supporting the native earls of Ross, and by enforcing the royal authority throughout Argyll, he effectually broke up the dangerous confederation in the north and west that had so frequently menaced the throne of his predecessors, and no outbreak in favour of MacWilliam, or MacHeth, signalised the accession of his youthful son. But though in pursuance of his favourite object-the consolidation of his kingdom-he was ready to enforce submission throughout the remotest Highlands, he was equally anxious to preserve peace upon his southern frontier; and though in his early years the influence of Eustace de Vesci drew him into the confederacy against John, after his alliance with Henry he never willingly disturbed the amicable relations of the two countries. Whenever any dispute arose between the kings, Henry was invariably the aggressor, though the bearing of Alexander, on all occasions, affords sufficient evidence that no unworthy fears prompted his desire for peace.

The reign of the second Alexander was in many respects an era of prosperity and advance, for his policy was peaceful, not aggressive, and directed principally to the internal amelioration of his kingdom.

ALEXANDER III (1249-1286 A.D.) IS OVERAWED BY HENRY OF ENGLAND

Scotland was rapidly advancing in church and state; but though a disaffected party no longer aimed at supporting a rival candidate for the throne, the spirit which had animated the conduct of the Scottish nobles was displayed under another form, and they now sought to influence that authority which they had formerly been inclined to resist. From this reign may be dated the rise of those two great parties whose contentions long disturbed the peace of the country, and hardly were the ashes of Alexander deposited in their last resting place at Melrose, before the animosity of the rival factions, kindling over the very grave of their sovereign, carried strife and dissension into the court of his youthful successor."

Scotland began now to be threatened also by the intrigues of the English monarch Henry III, who, in the year 1233, had attempted by his agents at Rome to have the validity of Alexander II's coronation questioned, and to procure a papal acknowledgment of the dependence of that kingdom on the English crown. After some disputes and negotiations, the two kings had agreed in 1237 to an adjustment of their mutual pretensions, and it was settled that, in compensation for all Alexander's claims, he should receive lands to the amount of two hundred pounds a year in Northumberland and Cumberland, and thereupon he swore fealty to King Henry for the lands he held in England, according to the ancient practice.

Scotland was now a second time to be governed by an infant king. It was now that the king of England attempted more openly to enforce his claim to feudal superiority over Scotland, and no sooner was he informed of the death of Alexander II than he made his application to the pope that the coronation of Alexander III might be interdicted until Henry III of England should have given his consent. The opposition of the pope was anticipated and counteracted by hurrying the coronation; but objections were raised even at home. The day fixed for the ceremony, the 13th of July, 1249, was considered, according to the superstitious calendar of the age, an unlucky day; and according to the practice of chivalry one who, like the young

[1249-1263 A.D.J king of Scotland, had not been knighted was incapable of ascending the throne before that ceremony had been performed. It was usual for a prince to be knighted only by a king, but the difficulty in this case was overcome by the boldness of Walter Comyn, earl of Menteith, who insisted that the archbishop of St. Andrews should first knight and then crown the heir to the throne; and the primate, calling to mind the example of Archbishop Anselm, who had knighted William Rufus, acted on the earl's suggestion. The coronation oath was explained to the young king in Latin and French; and to give the ceremony still greater solemnity, when he was placed on the fated stone, a Gaelic seanachie, or Highland bard, with a venerable beard and hoary locks, and covered with a scarlet robe, knelt before him and recited the royal genealogy in the language of his Celtic subjects.

Thus every precaution was taken to strengthen the claims of the young monarch to the allegiance of his subjects; yet his reign was one continued scene of intrigue abroad and faction at home, which eventually brought great calamities on his unfortunate country. In 1251, Alexander III married Margaret, the daughter of Henry III of England; and on that occasion, while resident at the English court, he did homage to Henry for his English lands; yet, when pressed to do homage for the kingdom of Scotland, he contrived to evade the demand by representing that he came there to be married, and not to treat of affairs of state, and that he could not take such an important step as that now proposed to him without the approbation of his great council. Nevertheless, Alexander allowed himself to be influenced by his father-in-law, who from this time took an officious interest in Scottish affairs, which gave great offence to the inhabitants of that kingdom, and raised up divisions and factions which continued long to distract it.

By these intrigues the Comyns and the great nobles who had hitherto ruled the kingdom were removed in 1255, and an English faction was raised and entrusted with the government. The discontented nobles, headed by the Comyns, confederated together, and taking up arms, seized the persons of the king and queen that they might rule in their names. The faction of the Comyns, which included most of the greatest families in Scotland, endeavoured to strengthen themselves by forming an alliance with the Welsh, who were then in arms against their English neighbours; and Henry, believing that his best policy was to yield, agreed, in 1258, to the formation of a regency in Scotland, which, by comprehending the chiefs of the several factions, satisfied them all and produced a temporary pacification. Alexander and his queen paid not unfrequent visits to the English court, at which the question of homage for Scotland was often pressed, but always steadily refused. The object of some of these visits was to obtain portions of Margaret's dowry, which Henry, pressed by his necessities, was slow in paying.

THE NORSE INVASION OF HAKON REPULSED (1262 A.D.)

In 1262 Scotland was threatened with a formidable invasion of Hakon (or Haco), king of Norway, which was averted for the moment by the interference of the king of England. The pretence was to support the interests of the Norse in the Scottish islands, which it had been the continued policy of the Scottish kings for some years to undermine. In 1263 Hakon appeared on the Scottish coast with one of the most formidable fleets that had ever left the shores of Norway, and proceeding to the mouth of the Clyde, attempted to effect a landing in the Bay of Largs on the 2nd of October, 1263. The weather was very tempestuous, which rendered it impossible for the

[1263-1284 A.D.]

Norwegian army to land in a body, and made the disembarkation exceedingly difficult and dangerous under any circumstances; while on the present occasion the Scottish army, encouraged by the providential state of the weather, opposed them with resolute bravery.

The Norwegians renewed the attempt to land day after day, till, discouraged by repeated defeats and the loss of great numbers of their warriors, they found themselves obliged to relinquish their design, and to put to sea again with their shattered navy. Hakon led his fleet through the strait between the Isle of Skye and the mainland, which has since been called after him Kyle Hakon, and after a disastrous voyage reached the Orkney islands, where, soon afterwards, sinking beneath the disappointment and mortification of his defeat, he died. His successor, Magnus, in 1266 relinquished his claims to the islands on the Scottish coast, except those of Orkney and Shetland, in consideration of the payment of four thousand marks and a quit-rent of a hundred marks a year.

Alexander was twenty-four years of age when he was thus compelled to place himself at the head of his army to withstand a foreign invasion. His attention was soon called off to other scenes of warfare; for when the barons of England rose in arms against King Henry, his son-in-law of Scotland sent to his aid a considerable body of Scottish troops, under the command of John Comyn, John Baliol, and Robert Bruce; but so distrustful were the Scots of the designs of the monarch they were going thus to assist, that they expressly stipulated that they joined his standard as auxiliaries, and not as feudal vassals, fearing that he might afterwards construe this act into an acknowledgment of his feudal superiority. The three nobles just named, who were at that time the most illustrious barons of Scotland, with many others, were made prisoners at the battle of Lewes, and they only regained their liberty after the battle of Evesham, in the subsequent year.

After their return Scotland enjoyed some years of peace, and Alexander, now arrived at full manhood, was occupied chiefly in resisting the encroachments of the clergy, in which his firmness and prudence were rewarded with success. On the accession of Edward I to the English throne in 1278, Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, was commissioned by Alexander to perform the homage which was due to the English monarch for the rather extensive possessions held by the Scottish kings in England, and he was drawn by the crafty monarch into declaring his fealty in such general terms as were afterwards interpreted as an acknowledgment of the subjection of Scotland.

THE MAIDEN OF NORWAY

After the disastrous expedition of King Hakon, the hostilities between Norway and Scotland disappeared, to make way for a friendly alliance, which was cemented in 1281 by the marriage of Eric, king of Norway, with Alexander's daughter, the princess Margaret. The latter died in 1283 leaving only a daughter, called after herself Margaret, and known popularly in Scotland by the title of "the Maiden of Norway." Family misfortunes now began to crowd upon the Scottish monarch; he had lost his wife, Margaret of England, and in the beginning of 1284 he lost his only surviving son, named after himself Alexander, who a little more than a year before had married a daughter of Guy, earl of Flanders, but he had no child by her.

The only descendant that remained to Alexander was his granddaughter, Margaret of Norway. He called his great council, which assembled at Scone